Spool having reinforced flanges



Oct. 1, 1968 M. REBILLET 3,403,871

SPOOL HAVING REINFORCED FLANGES v Filed on. 28. 1966 HQ] -H02 INVENTORWAfCZ-L flea/z 4 f 7- ATTORNEYS United States Patent 3,403,371 SPOOLHAVING REINFORCED FLANGES Marcel Rebillet, 167 Avenue Felix-Faure, Lyon3, France Filed Oct. 28, 1966, Ser. No. 590,285

' Claims. (Cl. 242118.7)

ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Large size spools designed to withstand greatpres- The present invention relates to spools, more particularly tospools having annular end flanges.

The spools to which the present invention is particularly addressed arethose which are used for the winding and unwinding of enormous lengthsof filamentary material, such as the spools used in textile industries.As is well known, the filamentary material is wound on these spoolsunder tension. The tension of each turn of the material on the spool isapplied to the spool and is borne by the cylinder of the spool in radialcompression and by the flanges of the spool in endwise outward thrust.As the forces imposed on the spool by the many windings of thefilamentary material are largely additive, the endwise thrust borne bythe flanges may amount to five tons or more, depending on the size ofthe spool and the nature of the filamentary material and the tensionunder which it is wound.

In the past, in order to resist this enormous end thrust, the spoolshave been made of special aluminum alloys or other special metals, whichhave adequate strength and desirably light weight, and at the same timeresist corrosion and therefore do not soil the thread or other materialwound on them. It would be desirable to make spools of plastic; butbecause of the enormous stresses the flanges must bear, and the inherentweaknesses of plastics, it has heretofore been impossible to make themwith flange diameters greater than, say 3 inches, or with lengthsgreater than, say 5 inches. By contrast, metal spools may be made up tosay, 22 inches in length and diameter.

Metal spools suffer from the great disadvantage, however, that they arevery expensive.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a spoolfor the winding and unwinding of filamentary material, which will berelatively simple and inexpensive to manufacture, which will have endflanges of great strength under axial thrust, and which will be ruggedand durable in use.

Other objects and advantages of the present invention will becomeapparent from a consideration of the following description, taken inconnection with the accompanying drawing, in which:

FIG. 1 is a side elevational view of a spool according to the presentinvention;

FIG. 2 is a side elevational view, from the same side as the filamentarymaterial, of a spool flange according to the present invention;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of a spool flange taken onthe line III-III of FIG. 2; and

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of a flange core which forms acomponent of the flanges of the present invention.

Referring now to the drawing in greater detail, there is shown in FIG. 1a spool according to the present invention, having a shaft or cylinder 1of which the two ends are threaded to receive internally screw-threadedannular 3,403,871 Patented Oct. 1, 1968 end flanges 2 thereon. Eachflange 2 has a flat inner face 3 which confronts the material wound onthe spool and which lies in a plane perpendicular to the axis of thespool. The outer face of each flange 2, indicated at 4, has thereon anannular outwardly extending hub or col- Each flange 2 is of molded solidplastic material. The plastic material is preferably a thermosettingresin, such as solid phenol formaldehyde or polyester or epoxy resin.Suitable such resins are disclosed in U.S. Patent No. 2,938,880, May 31,1960.

A core 9, preferably of said plastic, has the shape shown best in FIG.4, that is, radially plane on its inner face and generally conical onits outer face.

The core 9 with its assembled reinforcement is placed in a mold havingan interior configuration which is the same as the exteriorconfiguration of the flange to be produced. Further said plastic is thenintroduced in liquid phase into the mold, and heat applied to set theresin, whereafter the finished article has the appearance shown in FIG.3, in which the core 9 is shown between the broken lines 10 and 11 andis crosshatched in opposite directions. This method of assembly has theadvantage that the reinforcement is thus solidly embedded in the flangeand a cast plastic flange of substantial thickness is produced at thesame time that gas inclusions are avoided.

As can be seen from FIG. 3, the flange reinforcement is largelycomprised of a series of annular plates disposed in two groups 15 and16. The inner plates 15 are fiat and lie in planes perpendicular to theaxis of the spool. The outer plates 16 are largely conical as at 18 andparallel to the conical outer surface of the flange, except at theirinner edge portions 17 which are parallel to the plates 15. Spacers 19extend between and interconnect the radially inner portions of plates 15and 16; and spacers 20 extend between and interconnect the radiallyouter portions of plates 15 and 16. The assembly of the plates 15 and 16is effected on the core 9 after which the spacers 19 and 20 are securedin place. It is to be noted that the plates 15 and 16 are all of aboutthe same inside diameter but of distinctively different outsidediameter, the plates 15 and 16 of least diameter being closest to eachother and to the neutral plane adjacent the base of the flange, and theplates 15 and 16 of largest diameter being the outermost plates of theflange. The plastic covering comprising the remainder of the flange isthen applied as described above. Preferably, the plates 15 and 16 areprovided with holes therethrough (not shown) to ensure equaldistribution of the plastic during the last molding step.

From a consideration of the foregoing disclosure, therefore, it will beevident that all of the initially recited objects of the presentinvention have been achieved.

Although the present invention has been described and illustrated inconnection with preferred embodiments, it is to be understood thatmodifications and variations may be resorted to without departing fromthe spirit of the invention, as those skilled in this art will readilyunderstand. Such modifications and variations are considered to bewithin the purview and scope of the present invention as defined by theappended claims.

I claim:

1. A spool having a flange of hard synthetic resin with a metalreinforcement embedded in the plastic and disposed over at least most ofthe radial extent of the flange, the reinforcement comprising a pair ofmetal structures inside which is disposed an annular synthetic resincore, said metal structures comprising annular metal plates on oppositesides of the core, at least some of these plates being surrounded bysaid synthetic resin.

2. A spool having a flange of hard synthetic resin with a metalreinforcement embedded in the plastic and disposed over at least most ofthe radial extent of the flange, the reinforcement comprising a'pair ofmetal structures inside which is disposed an annular synthetic resincore, and connector means between the metal structures on the radiallyinner and radially outer sides of the core.

3. A spool having a flange of hard synthetic resin with a metalreinforcement embedded in the plastic and disposed over at least most ofthe radial extent of the flange, the reinforcement comprising a pair ofmetal structures inside which is disposed an annular synthetic resincore, Said metal structures extending radially inwardly a substantialdistance beyond said core.

4. A spool as claimed in claim 3, a said metal structure on the outerside of the flange lying in a plane perpendicular to the axis of thespool, a said metal structure on the inner side of the flange beingconical radially outwardly of the hub but lying in a plane perpendicularto the axis of the spool radially inwardly of the hub.

5. A spool having a flange of hard synthetic resin with a metalreinforcement embedded in the plastic and disposed over at least most ofthe radial extent of the flange, the reinforcement comprising aplurality of annular metal plates spaced apart substantially distancesaxially of the spool, said plates being'dispos'ed in two s aced'staeksWith the plate in each stack which is the farthest from the other stackhaving the greatest diameter and the other plates having progressivelysmaller diameters.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 8/ 1956 France.

OTHER REFERENCES Scanlan, German printed application 1,117,462, pub].

20 November 1961.

GEORGE F. MAUTZ, Primary Examiner.

